[A] recent survey was conducted to uncover the most frustrating websites and surprise, Comcast checked in at #1. The survey was conducted by AnswerDash.com, a website created by the University of Washington, which has become one of the world’s leaders in providing contextual FAQ’s for websites and apps.
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This annoying call between Engadget Co-Founder Ryan Block underscores the frustrations consumers feel when dealing with big companies and organizations like Comcast and The IRS. |
According to AnswerDash.com CEO Jake Wobbrock, the survey was meant to provide information on consumer website preferences and abandonment patterns, as well as online customer service tools favored by end users.
“We conducted this survey to provide companies with actionable insights around website usability, and the results are telling,” said AnswerDash CEO Jake Wobbrock. “Companies face a huge opportunity to provide an intuitive online experience by including website support tools, such as Contextual FAQs, that reduce abandonment through improved user experience.”
Data collected points to three of the worst performing websites: Comast.com (59%), IRS.gov (37%) and Centurylink.com (35%) with the worst rates. It should come as no surprise that Comcast came in at #1 after an embarrassing incident in 2014 that went viral.
An 18-minute phone call between Engadget co-founder Ryan Block’s wife and a Comcast representative hit the net in July, after the Blocks attempted to disconnect their service. The rep harassed them during the telephone conversation and repeatedly prevented the couple from canceling their service.
Contrary to Comcast’s site and poor customer service, such websites as Facebook.com, Apple.com and also Amazon.com were lauded as being the most sought after websites that were user-friendly and thus, yielded a higher usability score.
The survey states that about 75% of millennial ditched any unhelpful websites within two minutes of logging on.  It also revealed that 28% of consumers used a website for about 4 minutes, before abandonment altogether. Confusion regarding sites abandonment rate cut across all age groups, with 90 seconds being set as the average time.
The result of the frustration is deemed to be associated with poor revenue collection in the future, despite an overall growth in revenue for the online market. Companies are therefore advised to embark on improving their website experience and incorporating effective customer service tools.